between Man and all other Animals. 3 



for their developement. A kitten reared by hand, or a bird 

 raised from the nest, have the same language *, the same 

 leading habits, as the rest of their species, but little, if at all, 

 modified by change of circumstances. A kitten watches at 

 a mouse-hole, though it has never seen a mouse ; the squirrel 

 proceeds by the easiest possible method to get at the kernel 

 of its first nut, by invariably scraping, with its lower incisors, 

 at the softer end, which it instinctively turns in its fore paws 

 to the proper position ; and the wasp, crawling forth from its 

 pupa envelope, immediately commences feeding the neigh- 

 bouring larvae. The human infant, too, applies instinctively 

 to the breast, like the young of all other mammalians ; but, 

 unlike those, it has to attain all its after-kno\vled<re through. 



i . . © O 



the medium of its external senses. It looks to its nurses, and 

 those about it, for information ; and these are capable of so 

 communicating their attainments, as very materially to assist 

 the infant learner in its acquisition of knowledge. It is pre- 

 posterous to assert the contrary, as has been done ; or to 

 pretend that it rests on the choice of the infant whether or 

 not it will learn. f Practically, it cannot help doing so ; and 

 it is equally monstrous to deny that human beings can so 

 communicate the results of their experience, that, with what 

 in addition is ever accumulating, each generation must 

 necessarily rise in knowledge above the last. Unless the 

 faculties were to be much deteriorated, it could not be other- 

 wise. Who can pretend to deny the excessive influence of 

 every generation upon that which immediately succeeds it; 

 the influence both of precept and example ? Imagine it pos- 

 sible for those of the present day to refuse to instruct; and 

 what would then be the consequent condition of their off- 

 spring ? Apply the same test to any other species of animal ; 

 and in what measure would the progeny be affected? 



1 wish not to defend the untenable doctrine, that the 

 higher groups of animals do not individually profit by ex- 



* The reader may probably be disposed to refer this to the structure 

 of the vocal organs. But, admitting to the full extent the reasonable- 

 ness of this view, it must be borne in mind that the smaller birds have 

 great power of modulation ; and it is a certain fact, that, although in 

 most species the song is purely innate, there are many (as the song thrush 

 and nightingale) in which it is, for the most part, acquired ; as is proved 

 by the fact of these never warbling their wild notes when reared in con- 

 finement, except they have had opportunities of listening to the proper song 

 of their species ; which latter, it may be remarked, they imitate much more 

 readily than any other. I do not consider, however, the music of a bird 

 to be so much the language of its species, as those various notes and 

 calls by which different individuals commune together; and these I have 

 never known to vary under any circumstances. 



f See Mag. Nat. Hist, (old series), vol. ix. p. 612. 1. 3., et seq. 



b 2 



